Contents

History

Gerald Marsh ran a jewelry store in Manhattan. When his business started doing poorly, he adopted the guise of the Protector and attempted to extort money from his competitors. Wearing a costume with platform shoes and exoskeleton and armed with a fake Disintegrating gun, the Marsh first reported that he himself had been harassed and his jewelry destroyed by the Protector. Then, he began demanding that other jewelers pay him each week or the Protector would assault them and destroy their inventory of jewelry.

Ant-Man investigated the Protector’s alleged assault on Marsh and used his network of ants to learn of the Protector’s next attack. While attempting to extort another jewelry store owner, the Protector was confronted by Ant-Man, who tripped him up on a string of pearls strategically dropped by his ants. The Protector grabbed a water pistol from a passing boy and used it to nearly wash Ant-Man down a storm drain. The Protector managed to escape while Ant-Man was distracted.

A week later, Ant-Man as his alter ego Henry Pym, rented a store front and set up a jewelry store to make himself a target for the Protector. Eventually, the new shop caught the Protector’s attention and he made an appearance, smashing about a display case and disintegrating some of Pym’s inventory. While in the jewelry store, Ant-Man ordered several of his ants to climb on the Protector’s boot. Ant-Man was soon on the Protector’s trail, tracking him to an abandoned tenement using the electronic signals transmitted by his ants.

As Ant-Man entered the building, he found that the Protector was waiting for him with a vacuum cleaner. Believing Ant-Man trapped within the vacuum bag, the Protector sealed the opening to the bag and left the room. When he returned, he noticed that the bag had been torn open and that Ant-Man had escaped. Thinking that he could not have gotten far, he removed his goggles in order to search for him. At that instant, Ant-Man turned on a nearby fan, blowing all of the dust in the vacuum bag directly into the Protector’s face, blinding an paralysing him long enough for the police to arrive. The Protector was then unmasked, revealing him to be the jeweler Gerald Marsh[1].

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Strength level

The Protector possesses the normal human strength for a man his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Exoskeleton - The Protector wears a primitive exoskeleton and platform shoes to increase his size and strength.

Weapons

Disintegrator Gun - The Protector uses a gun that creates a large puff of smoke. Under the cover of smoke created by his gun, the Protector often steals valuables and replaces them with piles of sand, making it appear as though he disintegrated them.